Last week’s sad article (Chronicle. May 4) suggesting that a reduction in Government funding will mean 40 employees at Bath College losing their livelihoods ought to be a warning to those primary schools in Bath who are currently investigating leaving B&NES and seeking academy status.

Thirty years ago Bath College (or “The Tech” as most people know it) was a thriving institution at the heart of our community. It had a well-used theatre, a superb adult art centre in Sydney Place, extensive A-level provision (which often provided a second chance to those who had not done so well at school) as well as a wide range of vocational and professional courses.

Today most of that has gone. The theatre was bulldozed, there are no recreational language classes, there is no A-level programme at all and Sydney Place, like the proverbial family silver, was sold off with some other items of valuable real estate.

Why has this happened? In 1992 the college was taken away from the local council and funded directly from Whitehall under the care of a group of local worthies known by the rather sinister title of The Corporation! These poor folk did their best but what quickly became obvious was that the change in organisation was simply a cynical way for the Conservative government to reduce the overall level of funding to the service.

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Whereas B&NES might have responded to local needs and demands sympathetically and found money for services, central funding had no such sensitivity and the systematic diminution of our local college was the result.

GV of The Guildhall in Bath (Image: Artur Lesniak)

The same pattern is also emerging with the academisation of schools. Intially pupils, parents and teachers see little change on leaving the local authority and becoming an academy. Then the Tories in Whitehall start to amend the funding mechanism so that school governors have to respond by reducing the curriculum, reducing staffing or reducing the length of the school day.

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Right now there will be a number of primary schools in Bath informing their parents that the governors have decided to leave B&NES and seek academy status.

I would advise all parents to attend the school meeting which will be called and ask the governing body how they intend to ensure that the quality of education in their school is maintained into the future. The evidence from the poor old college sector and the redundancies at “The Tech” do not provide much encouragement.